The Ship Has Launched

Rebecca left Columbus this afternoon. En route to Chicago, en route to South Dakota where she used to be a park ranger at Jewel Cave, en route to Denver to see Mari and family, en route to Portland. I am enjoying periodic updates.

I celebrated this day with three events:

1. Meditation on the $3 cup of coffee.
I am a firm believer in the following concept for travel, new towns, etc. If you see a long line of people waiting to buy food or beverage, get in that line. In Portland, the lines are at Stumptown, a local coffee roaster. They have two people working the counter. This is slow because they take their time. They know there's a line. They know people are waiting. They don't care. Because they know that you know that you want the coffee and will wait for it. For like 15 minutes.

Many days I have walked past the line, because I'm on my way to work and I just don't have time to stand in line waiting for a cup of coffee. The mood struck me this morning to get in the line. I really was in a bit of a hurry to be on my way, so i said I'll just have a large cup of drip. That's portland for "just put the coffee you have brewed in the damn cup." The barista directed me to the chalk board overhead which described the acidity, aroma and tenor of various beans they had available. Which bean? ummm, the honduras. Ok. Then he goes to the back and hauls out a giant bag of beans and starts measuring. And i'm like, dude, really its ok, just give me what you have, whatev. and he was very kind but firm when he turned around and explained that each and every cup is made from scratch. so it couldn't be fast. i would have to stand there and wait for my drip coffee that i thought would be the fastest. and then it was $3. which I wasn't expecting but I suppose he justified. I don't know. It tasted about like starbucks to me. its coffee. but people get real excited about stumptown out here. believe you me.

2. Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
For lunch I went out to Blueplate with another lawyer from the office. I had the Portland rainy day special because it was raining which consisted of a mug of tomato soup and a cheesy cheesy grilled cheese sandwich. Blueplate is fancy and foodie and they are only open during the day pretty much and they only have like five tables and i don't know how they exist but more power to them.

3. Pinot Noir
After work I took the bus up to a little wine shop in the North part of town by the train tracks. They have wine tastings every thursday night. Tonight was pinots from around the world and tasty snacks. I met the owner of McGinn's Wine shop, Jerry, and his wife and a lot of other Portland wine-os.

and there's also music for you:

The Fiery Furnaces - Duplexes of the Dead
This is the only Fiery Furnaces song I've ever liked and haven't just thought they were wankers for wankers. No offense.

The New Pornographers - Sing Me Spanish Techno